According to the 2011 American Community Survey released last month by the Census Bureau, New Jersey ranks last among
the states in the percentage of residents 18 and older who are divorced.
Just 9 percent of New Jersey adults are divorced, compared with nearly
52 percent of whom are now married.

“The composition of New Jersey married individuals is quite favorable
across several indicators, providing some evidence for the low divorce
rate,” said Susan L. Brown, a sociology professor and co-director of the
National Center for Family and Marriage Research at Bowling Green State
University in Ohio. “These factors include education, race-ethnicity,
age, and age at first marriage.”

On paper, at least, Ms. Giudice personifies those demographic factors
that, compared with the rest of the country, make the state such a
paradigm of marital durability if not necessarily bliss. She has a
college degree. She was past 25 when she married. She is white. And she
and her husband were apparently wealthy enough to have piled up millions
of dollars in debts.

“Marriages are more likely to last for longer periods of time when
people marry at an older age, have a higher education and earn more, and
New Jersey scores high on these three criteria,” said Naomi Cahn, a
professor at George Washington University Law School and an author of
“Red Families v. Blue Families.”